Season series: It's the first of four meetings between these Central Division foes. The Predators took four of six from the Blues in 2011-12, though St. Louis won the final two meetings.

Big story: Saturday's home openers for St. Louis and Nashville, despite both being played against division rivals, could not have gone much differently. In St. Louis, the Blues throttled the Detroit Red Wings 6-0, while in nearby Nashville, the Predators lost 3-2 in a shootout to the Columbus Blue Jackets. For two teams with high hopes, Monday will be another stern Central Division test.

Team Scope:

Blues: It was only the first night of the season, but St. Louis appeared to be in midseason form against the Red Wings. The Blues hustled Detroit into costly penalties - resulting in four power-play goals - and a lockdown defense held the Wings to just 14 shots.

"I thought we worked, and I think when we work and we initiate, we're a good team," coach Ken Hitchcock said. "And that's what we did tonight. We worked. We hunted the puck, we stayed on the puck, we were hungry."

In addition to their trademark defense, St. Louis may have found an answer to the offensive struggles that plagued them last season. Russian rookie Vladimir Tarasenko scored two goals on his first two shots, both highlight-reel efforts.

Predators: Nashville started strong against Columbus, getting first-period goals from Martin Erat and Ryan Ellis, but Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 31 shots in regulation to force overtime. The early-season jitters were obvious in the shootout, when Nashville missed on five of six opportunities. Captain Shea Weber earned his first fighting major since 2009-10 when he dropped the gloves with Jared Boll.

"A little bit of timing was off, and guys on both sides were swinging away and not manning up I guess you can say, maybe used to summer hockey a little bit," Weber said. "But that will come and, and in a hurry I think it's going to get a lot better."

Who's Hot: Not to be outdone by Tarasenko, Blues' forward Chris Stewart also scored twice on the power play. … Sergei Kostitsyn had the primary assist on both Nashville goals.

Injury report: Gabriel Bourque is day-to-day for Nashville with a lower-body injury. … St. Louis has a clean bill of health.

Had a thought on Tarasenko, but didn't want to put it in a new thread. Say Tarasenko continues his apeshit scoring for the rest of the year. How soon before we start to bring his dad and family into the St Louis organization in an all out attempt to keep him (happy) HERE? I wonder if Coach Hitch could use him in a coaching role in some capacity.

As the first road game, its going to be scary to not see all those beautiful St Louis fans in the crowd. Nashville, ewww!

Blues 4Preds 2

Any Blues fans in Nashville will be a part of a minority on MLK Jr Day celebrating!

Had a thought on Tarasenko, but didn't want to put it in a new thread. Say Tarasenko continues his apeshit scoring for the rest of the year. How soon before we start to bring his dad and family into the St Louis organization in an all out attempt to keep him (happy) HERE? I wonder if Coach Hitch could use him in a coaching role in some capacity.

No let's not get into an other Tony Rasmus situation please.

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Had a thought on Tarasenko, but didn't want to put it in a new thread. Say Tarasenko continues his apeshit scoring for the rest of the year. How soon before we start to bring his dad and family into the St Louis organization in an all out attempt to keep him (happy) HERE? I wonder if Coach Hitch could use him in a coaching role in some capacity.

No let's not get into an other Tony Rasmus situation please.

The idea of that just makes me cringe. Tony Rasmus is like the world's worst little league parent, except at the MLB level, somehow.

While I'd like to think that not all parents are going to be batshit crazy, I see that potentially doing more harm than good. If we have to invite his dad into the organization to keep him here, that's also indicative of a bigger problem, one that won't get better by his dad being in the organization. If he needs his dad in the organization to stay with the Blues, what's going to happen the first time his dad doesn't agree with something? It's a recipe for disaster IMO.

You know what would have been good? A clause in the CBA that if a team signs an RFA to an offer sheet over 5 years, whether you get him or his old team matches, you forfeit your 1st rounder for every year over. Philly would have lost 9 first round picks, and not that Nashville would have gotten them, just that the Flyers would have forfeited 9 years of first round picks. Get some of those retarded offer sheets under control. Or, the first rounders they forfeit go to the Cup champion. So they can get them back, but only if they win the cup 9 years in a row.

I guess I'll be late to Flashchat for this one. It starts at 4:00 over here and I work until 5.

GO BLUES!

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